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Review
. 2018 Dec 4;10(12):1917.
doi: 10.3390/nu10121917.

The Double-Edged Sword Effects of Maternal Nutrition in the Developmental Programming of Hypertension

Chien-Ning Hsu  1   2 , You-Lin Tain  3   4
Affiliations
Review

The Double-Edged Sword Effects of Maternal Nutrition in the Developmental Programming of Hypertension

Chien-Ning Hsu et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Hypertension is a growing global epidemic. Developmental programming resulting in hypertension can begin in early life. Maternal nutrition status has important implications as a double-edged sword in the developmental programming of hypertension. Imbalanced maternal nutrition causes offspring's hypertension, while specific nutritional interventions during pregnancy and lactation may serve as reprogramming strategies to reverse programming processes and prevent the development of hypertension. In this review, we first summarize the human and animal data supporting the link between maternal nutrition and developmental programming of hypertension. This review also presents common mechanisms underlying nutritional programming-induced hypertension. This will be followed by studies documenting nutritional interventions as reprogramming strategies to protect against hypertension from developmental origins. The identification of ideal nutritional interventions for the prevention of hypertension development that begins early in life will have a lifelong impact, with profound savings in the global burden of hypertension.

Keywords: developmental programming; fat; fructose; hypertension; nutrition; pregnancy; reprogramming.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic illustration of the double-edged sword effects of maternal nutrition and common mechanisms underlying the developmental programming of hypertension.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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